Some Israeli reservists say they prefer to go to prison to serve in the assault of Gaza City
Signs of dissent in the military ranks have surfaced shortly after Netanyahu announced the new military plans in early August, when an association of the Israeli Air Force reserve and retired pilots called for an “immediate end to futile war and urgent action to bring the hostages home”.
Netanyahu stressed on Tuesday the importance of the role that reservists will play in the Gaza City offensive. “Dear reserve soldiers, you are the strength that holds Israel,” he wrote on X, noting that they had to leave “work, studies and the house” to present themselves to the duty.
“But the mission is still not over,” he added.
The imminent threat of the prison has not dissuaded certain reservists who do not want to return to the front lines.
“I prefer not to go to prison, but if the question should go to Gaza, go to prison, I would go to prison,” said Ze’ev Bogomolny, 27, a painter who served in an artillery unit near the northern border of Israel with Lebanon. “I am ready to put my life in captivity to save this place, and going to the army now is the destruction of Israel, completely.”
Bogomolny also urged other reservists to weigh their choice to serve. After Hamas’ attacks, he said he felt that the “good thing to do was to serve”, but, “I think the good thing now was for each soldier, each reserve soldier, wonder why and, and at what cost, is he willing to participate in this war.”
However, tens of thousands of reservists are likely to present themselves to the rights of extended military operations. The Israeli army warned the Palestinians to evacuate Gaza City in safe areas to avoid the new offensive on the ground.
A strike from Israeli drones on Tuesday in the Al-Mawasi security zone in southern Gaza killed 13 people, including seven children, according to the families of the victims. The Israeli army claims that it has not carried out attacks in the region. The video shot by a team of news from NBC has shown that the bloody bodies of children have been arranged on the civilians and the soil of the Nasser hospital in Khan Younis.
“We destroy the life of Gazan civilians,” said Kresch, the American Israeli reservist, who is now organizing a group called soldiers for hostages. “We have killed our own hostages. We know it. “
Richard Engel and Gabe Joselow reported Jerusalem and Babak Dehghanpisheh from New York.
